The Manticore Job
by Velvet Laughter
Summary: Dark Angel meets Leverage! The team decides to take on a case that could break them. Their going to take down Manticore and expose its secrets to the world.


This is a Leverage fic that is heavily inspired by the TV show, Dark Angel, there will be some minor characters from it (With a slight possibility of some major players.) But mostly it will be the Leverage crew and their new client. I got a lot of my information from this site - wiki/Manticoreand of course from the show.

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Chapter 1 – New Case

Nate's jobs were getting riskier. Everyone knew it. Sophie had even broached the subject. Not that it did anything but start a bickering match. And nothing had really been resolved, he still picked the cases, some of them bordering on insane. None so much as the new one that had come across his desk.

At first the case had seemed unbelievable. Like something a government conspiracy nut had cooked up on his day off. But after much digging, research, and hacking on Hardison's part, the truth came out. It was the biggest decision, the biggest case, Nate had been faced with yet. He knew as soon as he made the decision to take it (As if he would have turned it down...) that this would be a volunteer only mission. Because this mission, if it went sideways, and lets face it, they often did. Would shatter the team...and they may not all make it out unscathed.

It was a Saturday afternoon, the team was gathered in Nate's apartment above the pub after their long week off. They were all ready and itching to get back to work. Parker was practically bouncing in her seat, a bowl of lucky charms in front of her. Sophie sat beside her, sipping tea, Eliot had his seat on the end of the table, beside Nate. And Hardison, as usual, had the floor.

"Run it Hardison." Nate ordered.

A click of his remote brought an image of a military facility. High security, barbed wire fences, round the clock guards, bars on the windows. Alarm systems, pass-codes, ID badges. It wasn't anything the team hadn't handled before. The dangerous part was the players. High ranking military officers, a highly connected weapons and defence government official, and the 'soldiers'.

"This is '_M__anticore'. _Located in an isolated region of Gillette, Wyoming. On paper its an airplane base. Of course airplane bases don't need nurses, obstetricians, gene manipulation specialists or hardcore training officers, and security guards, I'm talkin men that make Eliot look like a kitten-" A gruff growl interrupted Hardison's presentation.

"I'm just tellin' it like it is man!" He defended, and then Nate was calling them back on track.

"So what is this base really used for?" Sophie asked the million dollar question, a bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

"It began as an experiment. Founded by a man name Sandamen. Now the only thing I could find on him is that he belonged to some weird ass cult. After rejecting the cults beliefs, he broke off and came up with this whacked out plan to create 'super soldiers'." Hardison made little air quotes, and clicked away on the remote to show one of the few pictures he was able to find taken from inside Manticore.

"Nate, those are all children!" Sophie exclaimed, horrified.

Even Parker looked taken aback by the image. Everyone knew she had a soft spot for children in bad situations. This touched her in a way that nothing else ever did.

Eliot was stone cold silent as what Hardison had said, and what the pictures showed, began to come together in his mind. In his days in black ops he had heard rumours. Scoffed at them. At the time they had seemed absolutely ridiculous, now not so much.

At Nate's urging Hardison spoke up again. "They messed around with DNA and gene manipulation. They even played with animal DNA...women were brought in as surrogate mothers. They were implanted with the embryos and inseminated. Once they delivered, they were sent back from where ever they came, the babies were raised in that facility and trained in weapons, self defense, telecommunications...you name it. I'm tellin' you man, anyone of these kids could take Eliot out with their pinky finger..." Another growl, and a giggle from Parker, pulled Hardison's heated commentary up short.

"What exactly does our new client expect of us?" Sophie spoke up once more, asking the question no one else seemed inclined to.

"Listen up everyone." Nate called the focus of the group onto him.

"This is going to be a volunteer based case only. I mean to take down this project. Anyone who doesn't want in say so now."

Stunned silence filled his apartment. The calm before the storm. For moments later Sophie, Parker, and Eliot let their opinions out loudly as they tried to over talk one another.

"Nate this is insanity-"

"You can't be serious-"

"Cool."

Silence followed Parker's statement as the group turned as one to look at their smiling blond thief. Only to shake their heads at her not unusual odd statements.

Despite his teams accusations of insanity among other incredulous replies and the heated debate that had ensued, they all came together as one. It was a very close call, the only two who didn't put up a fight were Parker and Hardison. Sophie volunteered with the threat that if it went sideways **she **would pull the plug, regardless of what Nate said. And Eliot mumbled something along the lines of needing to be there to make sure no one got killed.

"Then let me introduce you all to our client. Who should be here...about...now." Nate looked at his watch as he spoke, counting down the minutes to his arranged meeting time. If anyone thought it odd that they were meeting their client in the loft rather then in the bar, no one said anything.

A knock followed Nate's words and Eliot, who was closest, got up to open the door on their new client.

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Well I guess we'll see where this goes eh ;p

Velvet ~


End file.
